The first game of Women’s T20 Challenge between Supernovas and Trailblazers took place in Jaipur on May 6; where Trailblazers registered a nail-biting 2 run-win over Supernovas. Captain of Supernovas was well settled in the middle but the penultimate over Sophie Ecclestone changed the game single-handedly. Even, Harmanpreet Kaur also claimed that the penultimate over was crucial for both the teams.
“I knew if I was going to play till the end we had a good chance, I had the confidence to win but Sophie bowled the 19th over well and that changed it for us,” Harmanpreet Kaur said after the game.
Earlier in the day, Supernovas won the toss and chose to field first which was certainly going according to their plans as they dismissed World’s No. 1 T20I batter Suzie Bates for mere 1. But Smriti Mandhana had other plans who freed her arms a little late, scoring a blistering 90 off 67 and took the Trailblazers to 140 on board. A defending total indeed on a slowish pitch and eventually they restricted the Supernovas within 138, registering a win by 2 runs.
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“I think we bowled well in the first ten overs, but we didn’t execute our plans in the last 10 overs. When the ball comes on to the bat, it is hard to get the set batsmen out,” Harmanpreet Kaur expressed.
“I think we threw wickets away when we were set and that was the major problem today. Overall, I am really happy both the teams played well tonight,” she added.
In the 141-run chase, Harmanpreet Kaur also played well and tried to anchor the chase till the end, scoring 46 off 34. But her efforts went in vain, as they failed to win.
“I felt 140 was enough, we thought we had 15 runs as bonus in the end. I have seen them do such stuff from the Indian dressing room but to see it from the opposition was not a lot of fun,” Smriti Mandhana said. “We wanted Jhulan to bowl the yorker, but she wasn’t able to execute that so Suzie (Bates) came in asked her to bowl wide of off stump. Our spinners were excellent and it will really help us in the next game as well,” she further added.
